Posted 03.11.16
Campaign to Protect Rural England: Article link
By Rebecca Pullinger, Planning Campaigner.
Much of our countryside and green spaces are at increasing risk from development but we know all too well that there is plenty of previously developed, or brownfield, land across England that is suitable for development but isn't being used.
Indeed, the Government has been slowly accepting this: in the wake of CPRE's Wasted Space campaign and Wasted Spaces to Living Spaces report in 2014 on the amount of brownfield land available, it has introduced statutory brownfield registers as part of the Housing and Planning Act to help address this issue.
Now, our analysis of 53 pilot Brownfield Registers suggests that there may be even more suitable brownfield land than previously thought. These pilot registers identify space for an estimated minimum capacity of 272,763 homes on brownfield land across the 53 local authorities.
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Posted 01.11.16
CLA: Article link
The CLA - which represents landowners, farmers and rural businesses - told a cross-party group of MPs that landowners have the potential to inject life into rural areas by making land available to house young families, local workers and older people seeking to downsize or retire.
But the organisation warned that government policies such extending the Right to Buy to housing association tenants discouraged landowners from making sites available because the homes would become unaffordable in the future.
The CLA is also calling for the value of land sold for affordable homes to be exempt from Capital Gains Tax and for affordable rented housing to be added to the asset classes eligible for conditional exemption from Inheritance Tax.
